oh no! haven't the yankees learned that incentive clauses are "insulting"?

Typical.

The clause should be the opposite, drop it down to 200 million or something if he DOESN'T break the HR record. I mean if they are paying the man 27.5 million dollars per year and he can't even average 25 hrs this will be a staggeringly bad contract.

The side benefit of the incentive clause is that it may make ARod easier to move to 1B or DH and preserve his bat.

Yep, he really came crawling back didn't he.

This'll probably be pooh-poohed, but if you're putting such a huge price on the head of the all-time HR mark, wouldn't you worry that A-Rod would try to emphasize hitting HR at the expense of the rest of his game?

I guess this would be a concern with any statistical incentive, but this record is so far away, so hard to reach even if the rest of A-Rod's career is otherwise great, and has so much money attached to it (you obviously don't normally see $25M "incentives")... it seems like a special concern with respect to this one. I dunno.

Is this legal? I thought incentives for performance quality were prohibited by the MLBPA (which is why you see things cast in terms of "games finished," for instance.)

Kudos for a skilful use of the "is this even legal" trope.

Anyway, yes, these are prohibited by something - the CBA, I believe. I think the union will agree to make an exception for this one. Can you imagine? "Alex, we at the union have decided that letting the Yankees offer you a $300 million bonus would endanger other players' negotiations."

#### YEAH!

I am going to get my ARod jersey now.

I read that as saying that the contract is $300M as opposed to $270-275M if he breaks the record (thus, a $25-30M incentive), not that he gets three hundred more million if he breaks it. But, yeah. Same underlying point.

TDA, you're right. You must be right. Still, $25 million is a hell of a bonus.

About a week later, A-Rod contacted Mallory, a friend who works in private wealth management in Goldman's Los Angeles office. Rodriguez knew the Yankees have a close relationship with the investment bank, which was instrumental in the launch of the team's YES Network.

Mallory called Cardinale, who works in the merchant banking section in New York and helped finance the network. Cardinale in turn got in touch with Yankees president Randy Levine.

A-Rod and the Yankees exchanged proposals via the bankers, and the deal gradually was framed in about a dozen telephone calls.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3112799

Re: 12

Hilaripus.

"Alex wants to return to the Yankees and wants to meet and negotiate a new contract purple monkey dishwasher"

Well, I know the bonus alone is going to make me hope he doesn't break the record, just on principle.

Uh, is that legal?

Looks like a done deal... http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3112799

Uh, is that legal?


Alex asked exactly that question through the bankers. The Yankees assured him that it was indeed very regal, and that his throne was being erected in the dugout.

Question, why couldn't Alex just call up Hank himself?

I don't understand this middlemen/intermediaries ########.

From the ESPN report linked in #17:

The sides still are working on putting together a provision that would allow Rodriguez to share revenue created by his pursuit of the career home record held by Barry Bonds, who was indicted Thursday on perjury and obstruction charges. A-Rod has 518 homers, 244 shy of the mark.

"The Yankees have never had a player since Babe Ruth that really had a 100 percent chance" of setting the record, Steinbrenner said. "[Mickey] Mantle should have, but he had too many injuries. It's a historical achievement bonus more than it is an incentive bonus. There is no yearly incentive bonus."

That provision must be drafted carefully because of Major League Rule 3 (b) (5), which states no contract shall be approved "if it contains a bonus for playing, pitching or batting skill or if it provides for the payment of a bonus contingent on the standing of the signing club at the end of the championship season."

AFAICT the Yankees are following on a wedge driven into Rule 3(b)(5) by the contract signed by Curt Schilling in 2003. Schilling had an extra season (2007, in fact) vest if the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series, and an extra $2M in that case, too. This was a blatant violation of 3(b)(5) but after the Sox won the Series MLB blinked and allowed the contract to proceed anyway. Bloody Sock and all, I guess.

Now the other half of 3(b)(5) will be eroded. The DA is exactly right in #6; the whole point of disallowing incentive clauses based on performance in the first place is that it has unintended consequences. It may seem fine to award someone money for hitting more homers, but if they start ignoring bunt or take signs because their financial interest lies in defying their manager, there's a problem. But I imagine that the Yankees and AROD will get their way.

Can someone tell me where the "is this even legal" stuff began?

This was a blatant violation of 3(b)(5) but after the Sox won the Series MLB blinked and allowed the contract to proceed anyway. Bloody Sock and all, I guess.

Of course, it should have been nixed as soon as the contract agreed to, long before there was any bloody sock. But who cares about the actual rules, everybody is making gobs of money! It's been a long time since MLB has seemed to care much about anything that it didn't absolutely have to care about.

Can someone tell me where the "is this even legal" stuff began?

Evidently in a recent AROD thread the waggish Primate NJASDJDH started asking if various contract options were legal and then discovered he could ask on BTF if almost anything was legal and 10 or 12 lawyers would opine. But now it has gotten to the point where you can't ask a serious question about whether something is legal. Kind of like when Admiral Ackbar saw everything as a trap and people would wander into trap after trap because they thought he wasn't serious :)

The bonus doesn't really make any sense unless ARod has the Boras opt out clauses that Boras had originally demanded. I'm assuming that ARod would still have a no trade clause and even if he did I'm also assuming that he would be a 10/5 man by the time he got near the record. So it isn't like ARod will be on another team when he breaks the record not unless the Yanks pay him to go. So what is the point of the bonus then? As best I can figure it it looks like a saving face thing for both parties. ARod gets his 10 year 300 million dollar contract and the Yanks get to say they got him at 10 years 275 million.

thread the waggish Primate NJASDJDH

waggish?

I heard your mother's waggish but your father's a quipster.

Evidently in a recent AROD thread the waggish Primate NJASDJDH started asking if various contract options were legal and then discovered he could ask on BTF if almost anything was legal and 10 or 12 lawyers would opine.

Only the more shy ones stay quiet. The shyster lawyers.

A-Rod and the Yankees exchanged proposals via the bankers, and the deal gradually was framed in about a dozen telephone calls.

Gah. It took my wife and my brother-in-law a dozen phone calls this morning to figure out where, how, when, and with whom we were going to buy my in-laws a couple of Lay-Z-Boys for Christmas.

"if it contains a bonus for playing, pitching or batting skill or if it provides for the payment of a bonus contingent on the standing of the signing club at the end of the championship season."

Does the "championship season" include the post-season? I don't have a copy of the CBA handy, but a former local NFL coach used the term "championship season" to refer to the regular season.

Does the "championship season" include the post-season? I don't have a copy of the CBA handy, but a former local NFL coach used the term "championship season" to refer to the regular season.

The championship season means the regular season in MLB.

"During the term of this Agreement, each Club shall be scheduled to play 162 games during each championship season. Achampionship season will not be scheduled over a period of less than 178 days or more than 183 days. If, however, any Club’s championship season is scheduled to open with a game played outside of the United States and Canada, and the scheduling of such a game causes the championship season for those Clubs to be scheduled over a period of more than 183 days (an “International Opener”), then the championship season for all other Clubs shall commence on the date of the first regularly scheduled championship season game within the 183 days preceding the regularly scheduled end of the championship season. (See Article VI(C) and Article XV(J)(6), below.) Following completion of each championship season, eight Clubs shall engage in best of five (seven if the Division Series is expanded) Division Series."

The championship season means the regular season, but winning the WS is certainly contingent upon standing at the end of the championship season.

Evidently in a recent AROD thread the waggish Primate NJASDJDH started asking if various contract options were legal and then discovered he could ask on BTF if almost anything was legal and 10 or 12 lawyers would opine.

It was the first "Yankees say Boras isn't allowed in the room" thread. There were a lot of serious "is this legal?" questions, to the point where people started asking that to mock the repeats. Then people kept taking every question seriously and lots of innocent fun was had.

If Bud Selig says it is legal then you can bet your bottom dollar at Pete Rose's casino it is legal.
Are they going to give him any bonuses if he has a big hit in the post season? That should pay off like O J Simpson's reward for finding his ex-wife's murderer.

Is the "how did the 'is this legal' question get started?" now officially a running joke?

I think it's gone past 'running joke' and into 'legend' status.

Of course, the question needs to be asked if that's even legal?

Well Alex has his work cut out for him.

The record is 762.


No matter how much the nations scribes try to say it isn't and demonize Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez is a baseball player, a competitor, who when he steps on that field, knows he needs 763. You can bet on it.

Of course, by the time Alex gets close, I whole heartedly expect the media and therefore public perception, to be so anti Alex, that they will probably boo him when he hits it.

I gotta tell ya.
Just a quick perception from my stay at BTF, I am not sure half the people who post here enjoy baseball.
They may understand the game, and for some sick reason they watch. But I don't think they enjoy it.

Anti-Alex? When Barry Bonds is the current record holder? He'd be worshipped like Derek Jeter while he chases Bonds down.

The thing is, I'm not so sure Rodriguez can do it, playing half his games in Yankee Stadium. When he has a great year, like 2004 and 2007, he hits 50, 55 home runs. When he doesn't, he only hits 35 or so. 35's a great total, but he needs to keep hitting 40+, preferably 45+ for a few more years to get all the way to 762. Yankee Stadium is a hard place for a right-handed hitter to hit home runs, and it's also a place that, when Rodriguez' power begins to decline, is going to really exacerbate the problem.

Knowing he'll be a Yankee the rest of his career, I would bet against Rodriguez breaking Bonds' record. Albert Pujols, the world's eyes are upon you.

Just a quick perception from my stay at BTF, I am not sure half the people who post here enjoy baseball.
They may understand the game, and for some sick reason they watch. But I don't think they enjoy it.
Let's see:
A sweeping generalization about a diverse group of people you know next to nothing about concerning their state of mind which is unknowable to you.

Welcome to the internet, son, you'll like it here!

Yankee Stadium is a hard place for a right-handed hitter to hit home runs, and it's also a place that, when Rodriguez' power begins to decline, is going to really exacerbate the problem.


He will mostly play in the new stadium.

Oh yeah! I forgot. Forget what I said, and remember that I'm an idiot. Are they constructing that to make it easier on him?

The new Yankee Stadium will have the same dimensions as the present one, but a bit less foul territory behind home plate. However, it should be pointed out that 35 HR a year for the next five years would get Rodriguez very close to 700. Does anybody seriously think that he couldn't somehow manage to average 14 a season for five years after that? If he stays reasonably healthy, he has an excellent chance at the record, even if they move Coors field to Death Valley and he plays all his home games there. If he doesn't stay reasonably healthy, it wouldn't matter if he signed with the Dodgers and they moved back to the Colliseum.

Just a quick perception from my stay at BTF, I am not sure half the people who post here enjoy baseball.

Based on many of your recent posts, I'm sort of wondering which half you're in.